FILE PHOTO: Japan's Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba attends a press conference at the headquarters of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in Tokyo on July 21, 2025. PHILIP FONG/Pool via REUTERS/File photo
TOKYO (Reuters) -Shigeru Ishiba took over Japan's ruling party promising to revive it from scandal. Less than a year later he is stepping down as prime minister after three electoral losses shook the party's grip on power.
An unlikely premier who vowed to make Japan "smile again", Ishiba won the Liberal Democratic Party leadership election on his fifth attempt in late September 2024. That put him at the helm of a party that has dominated Japan's postwar politics but was at one of its lowest ebbs since its founding in 1955.
